Sky Ride
by nesza
Summary: Wherever the delivery man went, she followed. Cloud x Aeris. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: **FF7 and AC are owned by Square Enix, and unless I meet the owner of which and managed to make him drink a love potion, the game and the movie will remain as properties of that company.

**SKY RIDE**

Cloud Strife reached his first stop in breakneck speed. It was early in the morning yet he was already covered in dust and grime. He wiped the sticky sweat off his forehead, removed his riding goggles and surveyed the surroundings.

The house in front of him was slightly bigger than the rest of the houses in the quaint little town, though not exactly something you can deduce to be owned by a wealthy family. If anything, it looked like an old abandoned home. He knocked on the door, which, to his surprise, eventually fell off its hinges. Cloud narrowed his eyes as the door dropped to the floor with a loud thud. He looked at his hand and assessed the strength with which he had knocked.

"Oh, don't worry, it does that all the time," came a voice from inside the house.

"Strife Delive—"

"Yeah, I know. I'll be out in a minute," said the man. Cloud heard rummaging from inside the other room.

The delivery man looked around the wide living room turned workshop. It was filled with what seemed like gizmos and gadgets made of different types of junk. The room was crowded with things of different sorts, it rivaled the messiness of Cid's own workshop in Rocket Town. A soundly ping came from the corner and caught his attention.

A giggle escaped the woman's lips, she turned to look at him as she hid her guilty hand behind her back. "I think it's supposed to be a mailbox," she said.

Cloud nodded an acknowledgement. An imperceptible smile spread across his lips. She grinned at him in return before she went to the other side of the room to inspect the other wonders the workshop held. He watched her with curiosity as she moved around.

"Hey, look at this," she waved a hand to him to come near. He did and looked at her newest source of interest. "What do you think it is?" she asked.

It looked like a mesh of metal with eight legs and a round body. "An octopus?" he was at most uncertain.

"How unimaginative, Cloud," she shook her head. "Try harder."

Cloud scratched the back of his head. "A squid then?"

The woman just laughed at him. She placed a hand under her chin. "I say it's a sewing machine." Her other hand crept to touch the round metal at the middle.

"Don't!" Almost instinctively, his hand jolted to stop hers, causing his arm to accidentally knock over a small wooden chest off the table. This caused a rubber ball to bounce out, hit the walls and travel throughout the room, knocking off everything it had the chance to make contact with. There was a soundly noise of clutter dropping to the floor.

"Hey, what's that?" a chubby old man came out of the other room with a stack of boxes.

The offensive ball came flying towards them. She ducked while Cloud extended a hand out to catch it.

"Nice catch!" she said.

Cloud turned to look at the owner of the house. The inventor didn't seem pleased. "I'm sorry I…"

The old man scoffed and snubbed his apology. "Ahh, youth…always restless and reckless…" he muttered. He took the rubber ball from Cloud and shoved the boxes onto the delivery man's arms.

Cloud turned to the woman beside him who looked back at him with apologetic emerald eyes.

"Here's the address, she'll be expecting it before lunch today," said the man as he taped a sloppily written address on top of one of the boxes. He reached to his pocket and took out some gil, which he eventually handed to Cloud.

Cloud turned to leave and noticed the door lying on the floor. "I'm also sorry about the door."

The old man just waved a hand at him, "Don't worry about it, the door's not your fault. I've stopped screwing it back after the fourth time it had come undone."

Cloud nodded and lingered for a couple more seconds before he made his way outside.

"I wonder what's inside," the woman in the pink dress said as he opened a compartment in Fenrir and placed the smaller of the boxes inside. He strapped the bigger ones to the back of his bike.

"You'll have to keep guessing coz there's no way I'll open one to check," he said in an amused tone.

She pouted. "Be like that and I'll leave!"

Cloud just gave out a simper, not at all threatened.

The lady pretended to have gotten offended and stomped off towards the corner. She heard him start the engine of his bike and from the corner of her eye, saw him as he turned to her. "Hey Aeris, I'm going now, you...well, you always know where to find me."

He started off, leaving the young woman to stare almost longingly at his back.

"Hmm, Cloud…"

* * *

The day was almost ending, the sun painted red hues all over the once blue sky. Cloud was sitting next to a tree, resting his back on its trunk. It had been a tiring day of deliveries for him. He was eating the cookies Marlene and Denzel baked for him. 

"It's a vacuum cleaner," he almost jumped in surprise upon hearing her voice. She walked from behind the tree to sit beside him.

"Huh?"

"The eight-legged metal contraption. It's actually a vacuum cleaner," she said as she dusted off her spotless shoes.

"So you stayed there," he said. _So that's where you've been…_

"No, I followed you to see what the first set of deliveries were. Turned out, inside the biggest box was an eight-legged vacuum cleaner. You should have been there when they opened the package. It gave them quite a scare," Aeris giggled.

Cloud could only imagine the old woman he handed the packages to as she tried to beat the eight-legged invention with a broomstick. He shook his head, though his lips were hinting at a smile, "you know you shouldn't be so nosey on other people like that."

Aeris turned to him and beamed. "I know, I know. My curiosity's gonna be the death of me," she joked.

He swallowed, then stared. The hint of his smile quickly disappeared. He did not find her joke funny at all. Whenever Aeris spoke of death, it always gave Cloud strong feelings of grief and loss. Sure he had stopped blaming himself for her demise but it still didn't seem appropriate for him that they would talk about death so casually. Much more joke about it.

Aeris felt the sudden change in his mood and tried to lighten the air around them a bit. "You actually thought I left, didn't you?" she asked as she moved closer to him, eyes glittering with the sunset. "You were worried I--"

"No," he lied.

"You're lying." She sat up and faced him, leaning dangerously close. He moved his head away a bit before he completely turned away to hide the traitorous blush that crept up his face.

"See, your eyes tell me different," she laughed as she sat down again.

Cloud didn't answer. He was too busy trying to get the redness off his cheeks.

They were silent for a while before she spoke again. "How's everybody?" her question was serious this time. She was staring at the beautifully painted sky.

"They're fine. Marlene and Denzel are doing really well in school," Cloud shared. She heard the hint of pride in his voice.

She nodded. "Tifa's such a good mother to them, isn't she?" she said, turning to him with a smile.

Cloud nodded.

"Don't give her such a hard time taking care of you, okay?" she said. "She's doing a good job with you by the way." She returned her gaze towards the sky. Although she said it almost with a laugh, Cloud was still able to catch the yearning in her voice.

"Marlene misses you," Cloud said. He watched as the wind blew at her hair. "And Denzel keeps on asking about the girl in pink."

This brought a smile to her lips. "How about Barret and the others?"

Cloud extended his legs on the grass and folded his arms behind his head. "Barret's the same old Barret, only with a new oil field to get busy with. Cid's planning on building a new rocket," Cloud said. "Vincent had already stopped sleeping in his coffin, which was mysteriously stolen off the ShinRa Mansion. And as for Red, Yuffie and Reeve, they're—"

"Hey look, the Highwind!" Aeris pointed at the Highwind flying the skies. There was a unique cheerfulness in her voice that reminded him of Marlene. "Where do you think is Cid going?"

Cloud looked up to see the sky ship gracefully sailing on the wind. "He's probably just flying it for the monthly tune-up. He's mostly using the Sierra now."

"Oh, Cid sure is claiming the sky." She stared at the ship for a while, seeming to be in deep thought before she spoke. "Tell Cid not to leave Rocket Town too much. Shera…she's in a delicate condition."

Cloud's eyes traveled from the sky towards the lady, seeming to check if he interpreted her words correctly. Aeris turned to him with grin on her face. "Guess who's going to be an uncle soon?"

Cloud smiled at her news and nodded. She returned her gaze towards the Highwind.

"I promised to take you to the Highwind, didn't I?" his question caught her off-guard. He was staring at her with his blue mako eyes that always had tremendous effects on her.

"Yes, you did…" she said in almost a whisper.

"I'm still keeping that promise, Aeris. I'll really take you there someday," he said.

She smiled almost shyly. "I'll hold you to that, Cloud Strife."

She watched as Cloud stood up. He dusted himself off and looked at her again. "But for right now, I'll have you settle to riding my bike." He walked to his beloved Fenrir and mounted it. He looked back at her and cocked his head to the side, "you coming or what?"

Aeris had never thought of riding with him. She always told him that he rode at such preposterous speed and riding with him was as dangerous as walking alone into the Forgotten City with a maniacal silver-haired killer on the loose. She hesitated for a second but then thought to herself, heck, she was already dead anyway. With a smile, she ran towards the bike and mounted Fenrir behind him.

Cloud smiled as he felt small hands wrap around him almost as if she were real, almost as if she were still alive. He revved Fenrir's engine and with a satisfied grin, he rode with her into the fast-approaching night.

END

A/N: Don't even ask me about the physics of this story. I just wanted to write something about Cloud and Aeris that won't make me want to cry. Where Cloud has already moved on (sort of) and Aeris pays a visit from time to time.

Reviews will be very much appreciated.


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